


Loss

by MamzelleHermy



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Character Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, I'm so sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:13:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23858152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MamzelleHermy/pseuds/MamzelleHermy
Summary: "One second he is talking to Gil, smiling, and the next he watches as the man he considers as a father drops to the ground, blood pooling behind his head from a single bullet wound. "
Relationships: Malcolm Bright & Dani Powell
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	Loss

**Author's Note:**

> Hi,
> 
> let me start by saying, I am so sorry. I don't know where that came from. This plot just jumped on me out of nowhere (except maybe a friend mentioning how Dani and JT were taking over Gil for caring for Malcolm during episode 1x11) and then, I don't know, I just had to write it. 
> 
> And in the end it turned out quite differently from what I had in mind. But, well, what can I say, my writer's mind has its own life.
> 
> So yeah. I'm sorry. Please forgive me.

The shot  comes out of  nowhere .

One second he is talking to Gil, smiling, and the next he watches as the man he considers as a father drops to the ground, blood pooling behind his head from a single bullet wound.

His head fills with static as he  falls on his knees, frantically pulling the older man’s body to his.

“Gil?” He asks. But he already knows he won’t get any answer as only empty open eyes stare at him.

“Gil? N-No.” He stammers. “Gil, come on!” His breath is short and he is shaking.

Behind him he hears shouting and people running around but it’s only background noise. He can focus only on the body in his arms.

A hand lands on his shoulder but he  shrugs it away.

“We- we need an ambulance.”

_ It’s already too late _ , the voice in his head taunts.  _ He’s... _

“No!” He cuts out both the voice and the hands that try again to reach for Gil.

“Malcolm, please...” He thinks  it’s Dani’s voice but he doesn’t recognize it. It’s too broken. And he doesn’t care anyway.

He let his forehead fall on Gil’s too still chest, body curling around it as tears start to fall from his eyes. He hears someone scream and it takes a very long time to realize it’s him. 

He doesn’t stop. He can’t.

It feels like the whole world has shattered around him. Like his very soul has been shredded in a million of little pieces that will never fit back together.

And he knows with absolute certainty that this time, he has been broken and the he will never get back anymore.

And he just  wishes he would die, right at that moment. Stop breathing and die.

Because he couldn’t go on with living in a world where Gil Arroyo wasn’t at least a phone call away.

* * *

“Sniper!” 

Instinct makes Dani jump behind a car, ears still ringing with the distinctive sound of a high velocity bullet hitting its target. 

She hasn’t seen it but she hopes that everyone is okay.

The seconds seem to lengthen as officers carefully peer around hiding spots, exchanging information. 

“Are we clear?” She asks out after some time, heart still beating fast with adrenaline.

“Clear.” A voice comes through her radio. “We found where the shooter was, no one’s there.”

She lets out a relieved breath, finally pushing herself up to a standing position. She turns back and feels her heart drop in her stomach as she catches sight of Malcolm kneeling on the ground.

“No.” She breathes out.

For a moment, she is frozen in shock. Thinking that if she doesn’t move, everything would be fine and she would wake up and realize this was all a nightmare. 

She watches as an officer tries to approach the shaking, panicking Bright only to be violently fought back.

“We need an ambulance.” She hears him ask but she knows they both knew that it would be useless. 

She takes a  reluctant step towards her friends, her heart breaking at Malcolm’s expression. He looks... Destroyed. 

Her eyes  fill with tears.

“Malcolm... Please...” 

She tries, wishing he would let go. 

He just curls against his father’s figure. 

And then he starts screaming. 

And Dani falls on her knees next to him because his pain feels like a dagger in her heart, only adding to her own loss. 

He screams until his voice breaks and then he just keeps sobbing. 

Not knowing what else to do, she scoots closer to him, to Gil, and hugs his back, letting her own tears fall on his back.

* * *

They stay like that for a long time but, eventually, police work has to take place. 

Dani knows it.

It doesn’t  make it easier.

Gently, the officer that had tried to reach Bright approaches her and tells her that CSU was there and that they needed to examine the scene.

Dani feels like she would puke. She swallows hard.

“Yeah, just... Just give us a minute.”

The man looks pained and nods, obviously understanding.

She takes a deep breath and turns back to Malcolm. She can still see him shaking but his face and tears are hidden in Gi’s chest.

“Bright.” She whispers. She knows he had heard her because he whimpers and just curls tighter because he knows what she’s going to say. “Bright, you have to let go.”

And how she wishes that she didn’t have to ask that.

He shakes his head.

“Please, Malcom. You know you have to.” She insists. 

She sees how he doesn’t want to in the way his muscles coil so tight it looks like it hurts. She wonders if they would have to use force make him let go.

She knows she wouldn’t be able to. She almost wishes that JT was there.

But she’s glad her colleague didn’t have to watch this.

Hell, she wishes she did have to.

But then, all fight drains for Malcolm and he slumps away, letting his body fall back on his haunches. 

She catches him, arm behind his back as his red-rimmed eyes stare at Gil’s body as if he wanted to paint the moment in his memory.

As if that was necessary. She knows she would never be able to forget the sight in for of her.

“Come on.” She says softly, squeezing his shaking shoulders. “I-I’ll get you home.”

He doesn’t answer, staring unblinkingly but he lets himself be lifted from the ground.

The same officer approaches again but she shakes her head. She doesn’t need help and she  knows that Malcolm would not tolerate anyone else. She’s already grateful he tolerates her.

Slowly, she leads him away, feeling like a  puppeteer as she installs him in her car.

He doesn’t react to anything around him anymore and she wonders if this was what psychologist called dissociation.

She wonders if she should take him to the hospital, rules out the idea almost immediately.

The drive to his place is silent. 

Dani struggles to not let her own grief  overwhelm her. She knows that at that moment she has to be strong. 

She has to be strong so they won’t  lose another friend.

A nasty voice in her head tells her it might already be too late for that. 

She silences it.

She parks in front of his building and again has to guide his movements. She pats his coat pockets to find his keys and opens the door for him. 

Inside his flat they are greeted by Sunshine’s tweets. 

Dani’s eyes  fill with the normalcy of it. She inhales deeply to stop the tears and leads Malcolm to his couch. He falls down on it and curls on his side as if it’s too much effort to stay sited.

She kneels next to him, placing a hand on his arm.

“Is there anything I can do?” She asks, her voice low and choked. 

He doesn’t answer. Only closes his eyes and her eyes squeezed in her chest.

“Malcolm...” She starts, not knowing what she could say to help ease his pain but wanting to try anyway.

She is interrupted by the ringing of her phone. She sighs and looks at the caller ID. JT. 

“Go.” 

She almost doesn’t hear him over the ringtone.

“What?” She asks dumbly.

“They need you.” Malcolm whispers, his voice broken by his screams and cries, his eyes still closed. “Go.” He  repeats .

She shakes her head.

“No Malcolm...”

But the profiler just shakes his head.

“Go.”

He doesn’t say he’ll be fine. Doesn’t try to ease her worry. Just turns his back to her and repeats. 

“Go.”

She wants to protest, wants to stay with him, but her phone starts ringing again and she knows he’s right. Just like always.

“I’ll come back.”

She promises. If Malcolm has heard he doesn’t make any sign of it, just stays lying on his couch.

And then, she surprises herself by reaching out towards him and hugging him to her chest again. It’s awkward but she does it as much for him as for her. 

She closes her eyes for a second and prays they would be alright, prays that they can find a way to go on without their father figure in their life.

She lets go of him and stands back up. She walks to the door but before going out, she turns back towards the couch.

“I’ll come back.” She repeats and hopes that he understands what she’s saying.

I’ll come back and you need to still be there.

I’ll come back and I will not let you go.

* * *

“Tell me it’s not real.” JT demands the moment he catches sigh of her entering the precinct.

She knows that he already knows the truth but that he is just hoping for  an incredible hoax.

She shakes her head and clenches her lips hard to stop herself from crying.

“Fuck.” JT swears and then pulls her into a hug, squeezing her so hard that it  feels like she couldn’t  breathe .

She  relishes it.

He had never hugged her like that but she realizes that, at that moment, it is the only thing she needs and she clings to him.

“He’s dead JT.” She says, and the words burn her throat and her mouth like acid. “He’s dead.”

She feels JT’s hold tighten, feels tears on the side of her neck where his head is.

“It’s going to be alright.” He says forcefully, maybe trying to convince her, maybe trying to convince himself. “It’s going to be alright. We’ll get through this. As a team.”

Dani nods, her mind turning to the missing member of their team. The one she isn’t sure they won’t still lose.

They stay for a long time hugging each other, drawing strength from their partnership, from the knowledge that they weren’t alone in their pain. But just like earlier, police work was still police work.

“What happened Dani?” JT asks, and leads her to the conference room, placing a mug of coffee in front of her.

Dani shakes her head.

“I don’t know JT. One moment everything was fine. The next we hear a shot and then...”

She interrupts herself, swallowing hard.

“What does CSU say?” She asks instead.

“Not much either. But they found the bullet casing. Maybe we’ll get lucky there.”

They both grimace at his choice of word. Silence fills the room. Heavy and sorrowful.

“How’s Bright?” JT finally asks.

Dani shakes her head. She doesn’t even know how to start explaining the utter hopelessness and terrible pain she had seen in the profiler.

“Detective Powell?” A new voice says. She turns to see woman in her forties, badge around her neck. “I’m Detective Malone. I’m in charge of the investigation concerning the death of Lieutenant Arroyo. I was wondering if you could give us your statement?”

Dani wants to say no. She thinks that giving statement would make all of this too... Real.

She knows it’s stupid. She nods instead.

“Finish your coffee.” The woman says, not unkindly. “I’ll be waiting for you in the interrogation room.”

Dani nods again and waits for the Detective to disappear before letting her head fall on the table in front of her.

She feels JT’s hand on her neck and tries to take strength from it.

* * *

In the end, it’s hours before she can finally get out of the precinct. And she feels drop dead exhausted.

All she wants to do is go to her flat, curl up in her shower and sob.

But she made a promise and she  intends to keep it.

She stops at a Chinese restaurant that’s still open even if it is the middle of the night and orders take out. She’s not hungry per say but she knows she has to eat.

With her order, she goes back to her car and drives back the familiar road to Bright’s neighborhood.

She lets herself in with the keys she had kept and finds the flat shrouded in darkness. A quick glance towards the bed tells her it’s not because her friend is asleep. Not that she expected him to be.

She walks to his living room and finds him in the exact same position she had left him.

She knows he hadn’t moved. Even if it had been hours.

She turns out some of his lights. He doesn’t even flinch.

“Hey.” She says awkwardly, not knowing how to act. “I’ve brought take out. I’m afraid it’s not from your  favorite place but, well, at that time one cannot be too picky.”

Her declaration is met with only silence. She represses a sigh. She goes to his kitchen to find spoons and forks. Then comes back and settle to the floor next to his turned back.

She knows he isn’t asleep.

“Come one Malcolm, you’ve got to eat something.”

Again, he doesn’t  answer and her throat tightens in worry and pain.

“Okay. Right. I understand. I’m not that hungry either.” She  concedes .

She waits for a moment, wondering what to do.

“I’ll start without  you. ” She finally says and starts eating, hoping that the smell of food might rouse him.

It doesn’t. And after only a few minutes, she finds her  appetite dwindle to nothing.

“I’ll put these in the fridge then. So you can have them tomorrow, or whenever you feel like it.”

It feels strange to have a conversation with Bright without him answering. Normally it is nearly impossible to get him to shut up. 

Normally.

She wonders if they would ever have a normal again.

She doubted it. 

She turns back to observe Malcolm. She wishes she would know what to do to help him.

She wonders if there is even something that she could do.

She shudders, suddenly feeling cold.

What will they do without Gil?

She hesitates for a moment, asking herself what she should do.

She knows that she should go back to her flat and try to get at least some sleep but the perspective of it was.... daunting.

She doesn’t want to be alone. And she doesn’t want to leave her friend.

Decision made, she goes to his bedroom and starts going through his cupboards until she finds blankets. She takes two out and goes back to Malcolm.

Gently, she drapes one over him then settles on the floor with the other one, using her jacket as a pillow.

She doesn’t say anything and neither does  Malcolm .

She listens to Sunshine and lets tears finally fall from her eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope that this won't be a premonition, but I'm so worried for next episode. 
> 
> Anyway, take care of yourself! And read you soon? Maybe?


End file.
